Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Post image for Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes.

February 25, 2012

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Cincinnati, February 25, 1862. Tuesday. — A. M., 8:30, bright, cold, gusty, started in cars on Marietta Railroad; reached Hamden, junction of railroad to Portsmouth, about 2 P. M.; twenty-five miles to Oak Hill on this railroad; Cuthbert, in quartermaster department under Captain Fitch at Gauley Bridge, my only acquaintance. Took an old hack — no curtains, rotten harness, deep muddy roads — for Marietta [Gallipolis]. The driver was a good-natured, persevering youngster of seventeen, who trudged afoot through the worst holes and landed us safely at Gallipolis [at] three-thirty A. M., after a cold, sleepless, uncomfortable ride. He said he had joined three regiments; turned out of two as too young and taken out of the third by his father. Poor boy! His life is one of much greater hardship than anything a soldier suffers.

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